Sleep got a lot better for me when I followed medical advice and avoided my bed for anything but sleep (and the other thing, lol). Your brain needs to not associate your bed with work, school, video games, etc., so it can work as a trigger. Ever since I did that, I sleep within minutes of laying down.

In addition to all the above, I found a weighed blanket really helped me. Make sure your room is very dark, pitch black. If it is not, upgrade your blinds or a sleep mask. I got one that’s simple and cotton and it works wonders.

Now its winter I also have a heated blanket.

I heard the US military swears by a bodyscan meditation exercise. That works for me, or at the very least calms me way down. Sometimes I’ll try and take a short walk through the night, because I love it, but thinking about leaving the bed an getting ready for outside makes me very sleepy :) . Good luck falling asleep, unwanted awakeness is super boring and gets old really quick.

It’s really simple: you stfu and listen.

Turn off the narrative, the inner monologue, the train of thought. You probably can’t shut it down completely - that’s okay, just let it go each time you notice it.

Meanwhile, the back of your mind is constantly generating chatter. Passively eavesdrop on that chatter. You won’t be able to make much of it out, it’s mumbling and disconnected scraps, like someone else’s conversation across a cafe. That’s okay. Just kind of tune in; if you get stuff, you get stuff.

Being still enough to listen relaxes your body, and the listening-state and the space you create for it soon fills up with dream-gibberish - and that segues smoothly into actually dreaming.

I couldn’t sleep for decades until I started listening to audiobooks. It’s a bedtime story. Shut your mind off, let go of stress and just listen. It can still take a little while but now I fall asleep in minutes instead of 3 hours. It also helps me go back to sleep if I wake up from nightmares.

I’m able to sleep almost immediately basically wherever I lay my head, so I’ve never really had any problems sleeping. However the most important change I’ve ever made for sleep quality was how I consume caffeine. Yes, I believe you can fall asleep while totally wired, I can too. The problem is that the sleep quality will be terrible and definitely can contribute to insomnia.

So first, the FDA nailed the appropriate amount of caffeine in a day. Don’t consume more than 400mg in a day, and keep track. Too much caffeine with overstimulate you and will contribute to any feelings of anxiety while awake or trying to sleep.

Second, stop consuming caffeine several hours before bed. The biological half life of caffeine is between 6-8 hours, so if you have 400mg at 2pm, you’ll still have roughly 200mg in your system at 10pm. That’s where your sleep quality will get impacted. My personal rule is that I should space out my consumption over the morning, and stop having any caffeine at all in the afternoon.

Anesthesia

Same time every night. Consistency is key.

Exercise. If you aren’t physically tired you’ll have a hard time falling asleep. Most people with physical jobs have no problem sleeping.

Take 1 g of niacin and 1 mg of melatonin right before bed.

Nothing. I’m cursed. I will lie awake until 2am at times. I’ll wake up at 3 am and not fall back asleep until 6.

My go to is counting backwards from 100. I typically time the counting with my breathing, and I try to slow my breathing. Most nights I’m usually out by the time I hit 80. If you find your mind wandering, try to bring your thoughts back to your Breathing. I started doing this after I had been meditating for a while, so it felt fairly natural. If you’re new to meditation, do some basic meditation training to get the idea. Most meditation trainings start with learning how to focus on your breathing.

• Sleep and wake at the same time every day.
• Wake early.
• Avoid caffeine after mid day.
• Cool temperature bedroom as you go to sleep.
• Avoid stimulation immediately prior to sleep e.g. screens, intense exercise, arguments.
• Make the bedroom a place of rest exclusively, no screens, noise, etc.
• If sleep is elusive don’t stay in bed, go do something and come back later to try again.
• Worrying about sleep only makes sleep more difficult.
• Don’t use alcohol or drugs to help sleep except very briefly to get over a hump. Of the benzodiazepine class, zopiclone is effective for short periods to re-establish a sleep pattern.

Progressive relaxation. Seriously.

Reading, absolutely. And exercise.